The Rewatchables - ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ With Bill Simmons and Juliet Litman

Episode Date: August 5, 2022

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Juliet Litman go from totally geek to totally chic after rewatching ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, starring Patrick Dempsey and Amanda Peterson. Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Firefly helps you generate, edit, and experiment fast, because the asks aren't getting smaller. And the timelines? Ooh, yeah, still tight. With all the best creative AI models in one place, Firefly brings your ideas to life. Learn more at adobe.com slash Firefly. I sold my car on Carvana last night.

Well, that's cool. No, you don't understand. It went perfectly. Real offer, down to the penny. They're picking it up tomorrow. Nothing went wrong. So what's the problem? Is the problem. Nothing in my life goes a smoothie. I'm waiting for the catch. Maybe there's no catch. That's exactly what a catch would want me to think.

Wow, you need to relax. I need to knock on wood. Do we have wood? Is this tablewood? I think it's laminated. Okay, yeah, that's good. That's close enough. Car selling without a catch. So your car today on Carvana. Pick up fees may apply. The rewatchables is brought to by the Ringer podcast network where you can find Bachelor Party with Juliet Libman. I've been watching this season, Juliet. Two Bacheloretts. Yeah, two Bacheloretts. It's happening.

It's pretty good. You figure they're going to have one of the guys like both of them, and it's going to be an absolute shit show, and I can't wait. Yeah, it's coming. Also, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but very soon, the location shifts to a cruise, so everyone will just be on a cruise ship together, and they're doing, like, the two Bachelorette thing. Oh, my God. It's like below deck.

Jesus. I'm really excited about the boat aspect. I feel like that's a really important innovation. I can't wait to see what happens there. It's about time they spent money on that show. Coming up on this podcast, all I ever want to do is get close to you. And then when I finally got there, it wasn't me anymore.

The 35th anniversary of Camp Bobby Love is next. From Touchstone Pictures. Want to rent you? Rent me? Dating the town's most fantastic girl made Ronald Miller popular. Totally shake. But breaking up with her made him a star. Legendary status.

He's cute. Ladies. Until he realized it's not who you're with. It's who you are. All I ever wanted to do was get close to you. He's such a heartbreaker. Can't Buy Me Love. Rated PT 13.

One show, sneak preview tomorrow night. Check newspaper for time. All right, Juliet. All right, Bill. I have some hot takes about Can't Buy Me Love. It came out 35 years ago, 1987. I think it's one of the most important high school movies ever. Okay.

I think I'm going to do all my Stephen A. Smith-Hattest take award stuff now. Okay. Can I do some as well as we go along? You sure can. Okay. I think it is one of the most ripped off movies ever. I agree with that for sure. So you look at like the late 70s through the 80s, Halloween comes out, a million horror movies, rip it off. When Harry Mint Sally comes out becomes the rom-com protocol.

from that point on. Absolutely, yes. Die hard comes out. People just do die hard in 95,000 different ways. 48 hours comes out. Now it's like buddy cops. The two guys don't like each other, whatever, and they just make that movie over, over again.

Until Camp I, I, Me, Love, they hadn't really figured out the I will do anything to be popular strategy in a movie. And it was a, look, it's not a perfect movie. We'll get into some of the flaws. It's imperfect, I'll admit. but this unlocked this recipe that we've seen now for 35 years, right? Yeah, absolutely.

I was thinking about all the derivatives. There were so many in the 90s. The one that most comes to mind is actually drive me crazy with Melissa Joan Hart and Adrian Grenier. Like that, I think, is the much more sanitized version of this movie. And again, I think we'll get into a lot of that. But there's so many pieces of it that are ripped off. Even 10 Things I Hate About You, which is based on Shakespeare. I feel like owes a ton to this movie, like big time.

However, I've been racking my brain and I would love for your input. Can you think of other teen movies that actually feature a monetary transaction that is related to the central couple? Because I've been spending like weeks thinking about that. So this is a pretty weird error because we have pretty woman, what, three years later and it's basically. It was it 92? It was like 1990-91 range. It was in there. It was good.

So the original title of this movie was called Boy Rents Girl. I'm trying to figure out all the ways people would lose their minds if this movie came out. But that would probably be a start if it was called Boy Rents Girl. Oh my God. Yeah. Absolutely. And you're right. Pretty Woman was 1990.

Yeah. What year was risky business? So that was 83. Okay. And that's, you know, you're talking about the growth of the high school. movie over the course of the 80s where fast times is 82 risky business is 83 16 candles i think was 83 and then the john hughes has that run and we get breakfast club and we get ferris and all those movies we have pink yeah we have karate kid and teen wolf so we have like there's a sports twist of those

we've secret admirer we've just one of the guys which is not age well at all but was a very important 80s movie there's a there's a lot of them this was the first one that really figured out the popularity piece of it. Or at least that, like, to make it the major theme. You can argue Breakfast Club did too, right? Breakfast Club, which I think is the best written high school movie of the 80s. But this one is just like, this guy's a nerd. He'll do anything to be popular.

And it goes too far and he sells out who he is. It's a great concept for a movie. It's actually like really well thought out. I was impressed. My kids love this movie. Really? It's honestly, I think probably their face. favorite 80s movie out of all the 80s movies.

Yeah. Well, obviously we'll talk about this. I think there's a lot of pieces of it that have actually aged really well that probably for your kids in particular looked familiar in a surprising way. But to your point, like with like the popularity archetypes, so I was very little and this came out. So I grew up with it. It was like always in the consciousness.

It's hard to know sometimes if like concepts of high school are true to what the high school experience is like or because like basically every kid now grows up. up watching TV shows and movies that tell you what high school is supposed to be like. And so it's like, you know, not to get too deep on Can't Buy Me Love, but is it life imitating art or is it art intimidating life or just a movie? I'm not sure we can call it art. And so I think that like its impact was so huge, especially because this group of people did not turn into a click, which is actually pretty weird when it's someone's breakout movie. Like this was Patrick Dempsey's breakout and it's not like

And Amanda Peterson Yeah and like they were not tight No one from this cast is like Oh I love the Can't Buy Me Love cast So it's kind of singular in that it's like It has a lot of things that are rare in the teen movie Pantheon Teen movies were

Outsize important You know I'm in the demo for this right Like I'm in high school all the way through the 80s We didn't have the internet we really only had our own high school experiences. We didn't really have anyone to talk about high school with unless it was like a family member in another city. There were some books and there were movies.

They really weren't on TV at all. There were no TV shows with high school kids or like the high school scene being represented. So those Hughes movies and some of the other ones we mentioned, they just took this enormous importance and they were on all the time. they were like the first kind of level of rewatchables, like as the cable stations grew. So this movie was on constantly. Teen Wolf was on constantly.

All the John Hughes movies were on constantly. And it was kind of like, I have my own high school experience. And then there's this other version of it. And is, am I missing out? Is that the real version? And you're just like constantly confused by it. The big thing with this movie was we were all in love with the man to Peterson.

Uh-huh. I saw this. I think I was a senior in high school. I saw with my buddy Bish, who we used to go to the movies a lot. And we left that movie and we were like, sign us up. I will murder somebody if I could date her for a month. Like, we're just all in love.

And I just would have bet anything that she was going to become a major star. We'll go in and she ended up having a really sad life. Yeah. But if you're looking at the 80s, like who I would have just put bets on, like her, Kelly Preston, Lori Loughlin. They, you know, there are a couple, like, there's an alternate universe where she, just has Lori Laughlin's career and she's on full house and just has this whole arc. I would have bet on it.

And she's, every time I watch this movie, I'm always like, she was amazing in it. My son is absolutely all time in love with her. Like out of any movie character, I think it's his all time favorite favorite. And she's really winning. And then Dempsey was the other one where he was so good in this movie. It was like, well, and it never really happened for him. And then the Grey's Anatomy thing happens. Your favorite show. Yes. I mean. And there was enough of a nostalgia connection. to it had been like, you know, 17 years from Camp I'm in Love, but everybody like my wife loved him in that movie. And it was like, oh, Dempsey, finally. He's getting a break. Yeah. And I think that was one of the things that fueled that kind of Dempsey moment that he had. Yeah, no, definitely. I mean, I would say my relationship to Patrick Dempsey is complicated. McDreamy is one of the most important characters in my TV life. I was at the ESPN office when Entertainment Weekly accidentally spoiled his death before it aired. And I, I, I, I, I,

left my desk to call my mom crying. I was like so upset. I'll never forget it. We were still at Grantland. And I was like truly devastated. And then like phase one of the pandemic, he comes back on Grey's Anatomy in like a dream sequence. And I'm watching in my apartment. And I start, I erupt into sobbing. Like in no other point in the pandemic. It would have been like nine months had I cried as hard as I did when my dream even turned. Bill, I got to ask you, does Patrick Dempsey suck? Like, is there? any evidence that Patrick Dempsey is a fun hang, a cool celebrity, like a real, like, oh, this is a great guy type of celebrity because I was looking for the evidence.

I can't find it. He's very weird life. I mean, he was 21. He made this movie in his 20. A year later, he got married to a 48-year-old woman that was, I think, the best friend of, like, his mom or something and ended up having a stepson that was all. older than him. He spent most of their seven-year marriage.

Well, I think it was like a four-year divorce. They really only had three years together. And he spent most of that time refuting the fact that he was friends with her son already. He, like, had to keep telling people that they became friends after he met her. Yeah. Well, he might have been pretty strange. So he had, this comes out and you would have bet money that his career was going to take off. And from 88 to 94, he did some girls.

He did lover boy, which was supposed to be his big movie. Kirstie Allie, he was a pizza boy delivery guy. It was terrible. Some people like it, palately. But that didn't make it. Then he did run in 1991, which was like an action movie. Didn't make it. Mobsters in 91.

And then kind of his last chance was with honors in 1994, which was a big movie when it came out. Joe Pesci, Brennan Frazier. And then that was kind of it. And I remember he was like John Kennedy in one of those John Kennedy movies or TV shows at one point. but when he resurfaced in Gray's and the Dempsey Renaissance happened this movie had a second life.

It's one of those 80s movies. You know all the beats. It's 95 minutes. It's kind of perfect how it plays out from just like, you just get it. He's a nerd. He wants to be popular.

He is. He loses who he is. Has redemption at the end. And then they ride off at the sunset. It's perfect. This movie is also very flawed. Very flawed. A lot of things that are just like, wow, I can't believe that was in a mega popular movie.

I was just like, wow, how did that get through? But I think one also really important Patrick Dempsey beat is Sweet Home Alabama from 2002. Right. Where he is Reese Witherspoon's great guy, like, you know, difficult mom. He's the one that she's like supposed to be with in her new life. and then she, you know, I don't think this is a spoiler. Picks Josh Lucas over him. But like, you really love Patrick Dempsey in that movie.

And you're like, oh, right, this guy, heart of gold, great smile, salt and pepper. He's just, he has aged really well. And I think it's like, for me, going back to watch this movie, I was like, oh, my God, I feel uncomfortable. See McDreamy as a teenager. This is like totally wrong. But I think Sweet Home Alabama, like, reframed him as, like, the lovable, loveable guy who's both hot and, like, smart. And he's lucky he got that movie because it definitely led to him being McDreamy, the most wonderful guy. This movie hits a couple great teen movie tropes that have been basically eternal.

One is the I'll Do Anything to Be Popular. Another is my friend now likes me, but I'm too dumb to realize it is a great one. Right? They're in the car of their last date and she's just giving him the googly eyes and he's such a moron he can't see it. it's the when you betray your old group of friends for the new group is always a great thing.

Mean Girls had it. Meant Girls was another one that grabs stuff from this movie. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I think also 9-210 grabbed a lot from this movie, one of our favorite shows. Like, it's really, you know,

also I just feel like there's like a, like a desert southwest and like the West that was in the 80s that was like pretty unfamiliar to a lot of people and then became like this defining look of what it looks like in the western part of the U.S. And this is like a big part of it. And 9-0-2-0 looks very similar. There's even the gym, I mean, the hallway in Camp Imey Love looks so much, look like the West Beverly hallway as well, this one stairwell in particular.

I was like certain it was the same set, but it wasn't. Yeah, there was a lot of movies from this era that all looked like they were being filmed at the same high school, even though I know they weren't. Like, just one of the guys, the high school was very similar. but they all had like they had a gym, they had the outdoor recess with the tables or they had the indoor recess with a lot of tables and then the table hierarchy became part of what was going on. And it was just simple times.

You had, you had jocks, you were cheerleaders, you had the nerds and you kind of had everybody else was kind of floating around and that was it. There was no other things going on. No other, I don't know, no other groups. That was it. It was just they only cared about those three. even a show like Ferris,

I mean a movie like Ferris where Ferris is like the super popular one and his buddies with Cameron and Cameron's just like nobody likes this dude. It's weird. It's like his only buddy, but they always played that up over and over again. Amanda Peterson,

we got to talk about her. Yes, I would like to. Especially, I was just thinking as you were talking about the Breakfast Club. She was too pretty to be the Molly Ringwalled character, I think. But if she had gotten into the John Hughes circuit, I mean, just would have been totally different for her.

It's crazy. She just, the movie she did after, and she had a few before, but afterwards, she just didn't get, like, the parts you would expect her to get. I have, did a lot of research on this. And so she was in Camp High, I'm 1187, and then she did a TV series that lasted one year called A Year in the Life, which was, like, kind of an early prototype of, like, a parenthood type show. That sounds great.

I would watch that. Okay. Yeah, it's on YouTube. All right. Her big movie in 89 was Listen to Me, which starred Kirk Cameron, at peak of his growing pains fame, Roy Scheider, and it was a debate movie. It was a terrible idea for a movie, and it wasn't very good. But she was in it, and for people like me and my buddy Bish,

we're like, oh, my God, I'm in a Peterson's in a movie. We got to go see it. Something really sad and awful happened to her when she was filming the TV show. There was a sexual assault. Her parents talked about it. it. She was sexually assaulted. She was never the same, went down a drug path, and never really emerged from it. And she died when she was 43. And her parents openly talked about, like, this thing happened to her when she was, you know, a teenager after Camp I'm in Love.

And it sent her in a tailspin, and she never recovered. And she died. I don't, she didn't die of a drug overdose, but I think she had had a lot of issues. We heard about them. I was in college in the early 90s, and she was at an East Coast college, and we knew some of the kids, and they were like, she's a mess. And we were like, really? The girl from Kim, I'm in Love? So she had problems for the last 20-plus years of her career, and it's honestly one of the saddest Hollywood stories of the last 35 years. Yeah, it really is. That's, like, just so terrible. But it also was a lot of, like, posthumous writing about her drug use, which I thought was, like, in pretty, like, just, like, in poor taste, because it's kind of irrelevant, actually.

that happened when she stopped being a public figure. I guess people wanted explanations of what happened. But I think there was also like just a big gap in like people caring about her. I mean, she exited public life like we said. But that's also kind of another interesting piece about this movie as like it's hard to find articles that were written about it, written about her or Patrick Dempsey at the time because it's like actually before it's before like those kinds of stars had a big place in Vanity Fair or in. And they just, there wasn't the same kind of coverage of them as there was even like five years later when Sandra Bullock emerges or whatever. And so it's kind of, it's all very, like, focused on superficial stuff and, like, casting. Right.

She died of an accidental drug overdose. She, her, if you look at her IMD, it's done in 1994. So she, Camp Bob and Love comes out in 87. By 95, she's not acting at all. And you see her in this movie and you just would have assumed she was going to become one of the biggest star. of that entire era. And it's really sad. It's a sad footnote to this movie.

I think the one thing that's amazing about her role, she's actually likable. So few of these leading women are actually likable. And she's probably the best person in the movie. Yeah, I was going to ask you that because rarely, like the leading lady in these teen movies, I really like Ferris's girlfriend, I thought was great. Sure.

She's barely leading lady, though. Well, but yeah, you're right. Right. But I just like her. I thought she brought a lot to the table, didn't take a lot off. And I like that just one of the guys lady. I thought she was funny.

She had a little sense of humor. Some questionable decisions by her of the movie. But for the most part, you're right. You watch Molly Ringwald and Breakfast Club, and she's kind of awful. She's awful. Yeah, and every WB heroin also sucked. Like Joey Potter and Dawson's Creek, she sucks.

9-0-2-0. Kelly Taylor was one of the worst people who ever went to show. She was horrible. If you like Brenda, it's like because you want to like a bad girl or like you want to like someone who's a bitch. All of these, it's very hard to like them. I mean, you know, just doing like the mental inventory cat, like we said in 10 things about you, 10 things I hate about you also like don't like her. And so that was a, it's like a credit to the script, but also to Amanda Peterson. She like really made this character someone you actually liked and rooted for.

Yeah, Secret Admire, Lori Loflin, I like that character in her. But she, there's a couple moments when you feel like her moral compass is always in the right place, right? Everything about her is genuine. She's the cheerleader. Like she's supposed to play this part, but she's not, there's something more going on. She's like secretly writing poetry. She's supposed to date the football quarterback, but she knows he's kind of a douche.

She's got these two good looking friends who seem like they're 10 years older than her. Who she's just kind of judging constantly. Like, I know these are horrible people and has these little side-eye comments about them. But yeah, I really like that character. And it's my son's favorite. This movie made $31.6 million. On a $1.7 million budget. We don't even really know what the budget is because it's basically an independent movie.

They kind of made it and then tried to sell it at work. We'll talk about that later. Not like the best-reviewed movie. Roger Heber gave it 0.5 stars, which I think is the lowest. Craig, is that the lowest we've ever had? We had a 0.5 stars before from Raj? I didn't even know you could do 0.5. Why don't it just go zero at that point?

Yeah. He's been a mess in his take. Benemus. If Camp I mean love had been intended as a satirical attack at American values, if cynicism had been its target, we might be on to something here. But no, on the basis of the evidence, the people who made this movie are so materialistic

that they actually think this is a teenage comedy. Can't they see the screenplays rotten core? It's so good. I think here's the thing, Juliet. I just love this era of teen movies. I'll defend pretty much any of them. Okay. Even just one of the guys.

Like, that's a pretty reprehensible movie when you rewatch it a lot of way. It's still freaking entertaining. It's funny. I don't know. There's something about this era. I'm just, maybe it's because I grew up in it.

I think that definitely plays into it, the nostalgia of it. I mean, I feel similarly about 90s teen movies. But to the point you made before, so much about it is ripped off. Like, it's really foundational. It's almost like, you know, without this, do we even get some of the movies that then became really popular? And so I understand that.

I mean, it's also, like, a pretty easy watch. The other movie that I was thinking about as I was watching it was Greece. And I feel like the other thing about this movie is that so many high school movies beforehand were, like, musicals in some way or, like, had no bearing on reality. And this one, you know, though it has, there's pieces of it that really have not aged well, I think it did represent a cultural moment in a way. And so there is that to it. Yeah, they didn't really know how to make high school movies in the 70s in like the just fun, easy turn your brain off way. They would be like either like the American graffiti type or they would be these like heavy ones where, you know, there was like gangs or they would have or everybody's just getting stone. But they never just had like the simple, I just want to be popular.

How do I get there? I just want to date the best looking girl in class. How do I do it? or I might get my ass kicked after class. How do I avoid that? In the 80s, they figured it out. Was the teen movie star heartthrob invented in the 80s? Like, obviously, you had other teen stars before that.

But it was, like, usually much more focused on music, right? And, like, just because of the way that Hollywood was evolving, was there, like, someone who was, like, 18 and, like, the most famous person in the country for, you know, a few months before that? I don't think so. I mean, to me, like, I was thinking about Elvis, right? But he started in music, so it's different. It seemed to happen more on TV shows.

Right. Because like Kirk Cameron on Growing Pains, when that show took off, he became a heartthrob. With the 902 and O guys, when that show took off, same thing. Like, Dylan. Well, they were in their 30s already, so, you know. Lepere and Priestley, those guys were like legitimately famous. So famous, yeah. More people watched TV back then, you know.

You had like 20 million people watching 902 and O versus, I don't know how many people saw this movie, but it was definitely less. Yeah, the other thing with this era, there were some clever screenplays with this is probably not one of them, even though the premise is smart. But like a movie like Risky Business, you mentioned, Vision Quest, the Hughes movies. Right. There's real thought put into, you know, what they're trying to do. They're adult written movies about people who are in high school. And I don't feel like they do that as much anymore. Now it's like either it's like the Netflix version of it where it's just the algorithm

is just chewing out like, oh my God, people watch Campiomie Love. Let's churn out seven different versions of that. The Love triangle one is the other one. That's what 902 and 0 really mastered, which is like these two people are in love. They're friends with this person. Uh-oh, is something happening between these other two? Oh, Jesus. When's that other person going to find out?

and then that became another prototype for 30 plus years. Yeah, I think it's like also just back to TV again as we cover ad nauseum on the ringer like to be really big. And the movies, you almost essentially have to be Marvel or whatever. So, you know, but then you look at like sex lives

of college girls and never have I ever and series like that. And those are actually, I think, really good teen and college series like capture it well. So it's like, you know, it's always swinging back and forth. Can't they see the screenplays rotten core?

Wow. We're going to take a break and talk about the rewatch. This whole movie's rewatchable, but we'll try to figure out the rewatchable scenes in a second. This episode is brought to by Whole Foods Market. Spring is here, so celebrate it with fresh, juicy, seasonal produce and some very tasty limited time flavors. New Whole Foods, Market Peach, Apricot, Rose, Italian soda. Perfect for a picnic or brunch. As is their trending mango, Yuzu, chantilly cake. But if you're on the go, new 365 strawberry pretzels make a great sweet snack. That sounds delicious. Get savings with yellow sales signs storewide and everyday low prices on 365 brand items. Enjoy the fresh flavors of spring. Save at Whole Foods Market.

All right. Most rewatchable scene. Okay. Ronald's going to buy the telescope and he sees Cindy with the trying to return her mom's sway jacket. have some questions about that jacket later and convinces her to take the 1,000.

What are you talking about? Are you high? I want to rent you. You want to rent me? Yeah. You pretend you like me. And we go out for just a few weeks and that will make me popular. Just going out with me is not going to make you popular. Well, I have a thousand dollars.

It says it will. I think you've mowed one too many lawns. Interesting that the jacket and the telescope were the exact same price. That $999, $1,000. And he talks her into it. What would have been your reaction in high school if somebody offered you $1,000 to date you for a month?

I think I would have said yes, $1,000 in 1987. Yeah, it's like $10,000 now. So much money. Adjusted for inflation. I mean, come on. I think that's a yes. You know, it was just dating. There's something else part of it.

But I, that was pretty wild. I want to talk about Cindy's relationship with her mom as we get deeper into this. But I just want to say at the age of, you know, $16,000, that's a pretty fast yes, in my opinion. Yeah. And I think a great business decision by Ronald Miller. Interesting. Okay. Well.

He wants a different life. He doesn't want to play poker with his loser buddies every weekend. he's got the $1,000. And then some, plus another $400. It's a ticket into this new world. He gets hang out with Cindy Bancini for a month. I don't know. I thought it was pretty smart.

The next one is the car wash scene where they're starting to get along. He's washing her 1986 Volkswagen Cabriolet, which is just one of the great cars of that decade. And she's like, hold on. Gotta get. I want to read you a poem I wrote. All right. So the best-looking girl at school is going to read me a poem. Someday my wishes for him to hold me in his arms

in a sea of deep blue. Together at last. Together is two. Oh, that's beautiful. I didn't know you were a poet. No one knows. Even Bobby? What, like, if my son wrote that poem at age seven,

I would be like, eh, back to the drawing board. Together as two? That's not together. That's not love. That does not make any sense at all. It's one of the worst problems ever. Oh, my God. And he's like, oh my God, Cindy, that's beautiful.

That doesn't realize they're love together. This is another 80s thing, though. Like, some of the stuff has to be bad in a way that just becomes hysterical, the more you rewatch it. Like, she's reading this poem completely serious. she's like the new Robert Frost together at last. Together is two. Home run.

He quotes it. He steals it later on. He steals it later. It's like, I'm going to steal this terrible poem I heard a week earlier. The last date, he takes her to the airplane. Their 30 days is up. Last date.

He's driving her 86 Volkswagen cabriolet. She was outraged by. Absolutely. It was also confusing. I was just like, this is a plot problem, but moreover, come on, come on Amanda Peterson and Cindy Mancini. Expect more and drive your own car.

Drive your own car and also like, it's only, you only got $1,000. Like that's up to $1,500 if you're driving my car. Takes her to the airplane graveyard. Amazing. Which is a real life location. That seems fucking amazing.

Amazing. And also seems like a great date. Like, yes, I can't believe the Bachelor hasn't ripped that off. It seems awesome. Yeah, why is the Bachelor to the airplane graveyard? I don't know. So this guy takes you to the airplane.

playing graveyard, you're all in at that point, right? He's talking about the planes. Look at the history. He's doing the Patrick Dempsey, overacting thing. And it's like, he shows you a part of your hometown. You didn't even know existed. It's like he's taking you. You're supposed to be bringing him to a new world, but he's bringing you to a new world.

It's perfect. You're all in. You're just like, great. And then they're lying on the car. And he's like, we got to figure out what we're doing tomorrow. And she turns around all time googly eyes at him. And he just doesn't see it. Which honestly is a flaw.

I don't care how an experience you are with women. There's a certain look you're going to be getting at some point where you're like, okay, this person likes me. You're going to be able to figure that out, I feel like. Hard to believe that the character who knew down to the day how long it took for him to see a boob wouldn't be able to recognize that look and just go for it. So, yeah, I had some questions. The next one is the African-Denitur ritual.

That whole, when he goes to the dance. Yes. That whole dance scene is one of the, if I was, if you gave me like pick six scenes from the 80s to describe 80s movies, I think that would be one of my six. The band, the terrible songs. It was really rough. The nerd heard.

Hey, look, it's a nerd herd. Then he does the dance, which for some reason, everybody is like, oh, that's the hot new dance. Ronnie Miller's doing it. Everything about it is fantastic. I mean, I wanted to, like, just put my hands over my eyes. I was, like, cringing so hard, but it's definitely an encapsulation of everything about this movie. Like, that is the apotheosis of Can't Buy Me Love. The, uh, with the, when he does the hands, pushing the hands forward. It was sort of, like, raising the roof before raising the roof. He was, like, pushing the wall.

Yeah. And our girl, Cindy Vancey, who has pretty, good moral barometer this whole movie is just looking around like oh my god they're following this guy this is the worst like she needs to go to college um next one cindy exposes ronnie oh she's a little drunk i thought she played a pretty good drunk in this scene considering she was like 15 in the movie yeah um she hears him doing the poem and then just flips out record screech he bought me like he bought all of you our little playing work didn't it ronald the dance, that stupid dance. What a bunch of followers you guys are.

I mean, at least I got paid. Just an annihilation. It was an amazing scene. And in this rewatch that I did this week, I realized my personal favorite teen movie, Can't Hardly Wait, totally rips off that scene in a great way. And it's not a rip off.

It's an homage. And it made me like, can't buy me love more. And I love, love, love, can't hardly wait. So I was excited about that. So I love that scenes. Pitch perfect.

Done really well. I think producer Craig was a little confused why we were doing this movie. Other than that, it's the anniversary. It really is one of the most ripped off movies of all time, partly because it was so rewatchable. As you said, like, you could take seven scenes in this movie that other things have just, they remained Camp I Me Love with Nick Cannon in 2003. They did the all-black cast version of Can't Buy Me Love.

Yeah, they already did it. Yeah. So that whole, I am now. exposing our little deal and all of the people are just completely horrified and turn on the person immediately. That's been going on now for 35 years. I haven't seen it before this movie.

Yeah. And also, I just want to say, and Can Hardly Wait, which I really appreciate, they spin it forward. It's like the same setup with like her and her character's Amanda, her boyfriend who's gone off to college

and it's too big for her has like come back. And she like yells at everyone. The music stops. and she's like, you know, she also kind of like exposes the main character, but for the wrong thing. So that like really iterated on it. And it just, it was like, it's a great passing of the torch from one Amanda to another. Is this your audition for the Can't Hardly Wait, rewatchables? Absolutely.

You know I always have another agenda. Yeah. Next one. I mean, this is the most famous scene in the movie. He turns on his friend, Malachi, from Children in the movie. the corn, Kenneth. The weird-looking red-headed guy who was just in a bunch of 80s movies, most famously children in the corn.

And they do the Halloween prank with the two football guys that they go after the same house every year. He realizes it's his friend's Kenneth's house. He wants to be popular so bad. Now he's going to throw shit at his friend's Kenneth's house. A little unrealistic. You hold a little bastard.

Must have been a hole in the net. We'll get him next year. I don't think he'll be back. I have a lot of questions. First of all, Kenneth has been his friend for a long time. How did he not see this coming? He knows this happens to Kenneth every year. Yeah, how does he not know that, oh my God, wait, we're going to.

Oh, that my friend Kenneth had this happen every year. We're not going to his house, right? There is nothing societally that you could offer me to willingly be in the presence of dog shit inside a confined space of a car for more than three seconds. Actually zero seconds. I would be like no popularity is worth getting into the car with this dog shit.

I'm out. So I just... Great point. So gross. And they're using like their real names with each other. They're driving a van that they're driving around. It's so obviously they're calling each other like Ronnie or whatever.

So anyway, it leads to after Cindy exposes him, he realizes, oh my God, I lost my mind. the best thing I can do is try to get Kenneth back goes, Kenneth's playing the arcade. Arcade, a pivotal character in 80s movies, by the way. The arcade is always in there. And he tries to apologize.

And then Kenneth finally snaps and does the, You shit up my house! Kenneth, it's you I gotta straighten this out with. You shit on my house, man. No. You shit at my house! It's honestly one of the most famous 80s movies movements. It really is.

I would put it in the top ten. That deserves it, though. I feel like it deserves to be that huge because it's so funny and so gross. And honestly, like such a simple statement, but like incredibly unique to this movie. So I support it. I think it earned its status in the canon of 80s movies. I don't feel like there's coming back from you shit on my house. I don't think the friendship's being repaired at that point.

No, definitely not. I'm out if I'm Kenneth. Then we have the big ending when he defends Kenneth. Kenneth's going to get his ass kick. by one of the football players. And our guy Ronnie Miller, who now realizes who he is and what his moral compasses.

He's back to Ronald. Ronald is back. He comes in, saves his friend, does the whole monologue. He's saying, you want to end his life because he's talking to Patty

and your side of the cafeteria. Just play the whole speech, Craig. You broke your arm once before, remember? You fell out of our tree house. Kenneth picked you up. And we carried you 12 blocks to the hospital. Hey, you cried. all the way.

We were all friends then, remember? And now you want to end his life? Because he's talking to Patty on your side of the cafeteria. Oh, man, it's stupid. I know, because that's where I wanted to be. On your side, with your crowd, and I messed up. See, I tried to buy my way in. He's not trying to buy anybody.

He's just trying to make friends, being him self. Cools, nerds, your side, my side. Man, it's all bullshit. It's just tough enough to be yourself. Nerds, your side, my side. Man, it's all bullshit. It's just tough enough to be yourself.

Leads to the handshake. And then the slow clap. We'll get into later. Did this movie invent the slow clap? It's a great question. It's one of the, I have an answer for you. One of the most famous slow claps, I think, ever. in another 80s tradition.

I don't, I've never been in a situation in my life where there would have been a slow clap. I'm trying to think of, would that ever have happened at any point in your life? The slow clap just emerges. It would have been something that when I was a kid at camp, the older counselors who had seen and loved this movie would have done like as a joke and as a nod to the movie

and the kids would not have known. It would immediately ironic. By the time we leave the 80s, the slow clap can only be used in an ironic way. In this movie, no, it's used to be dramatic. dramatic, genuine, all of our lives have been changed by this handshake moment. And then I really like the ending. I mean, it's iconic.

Again, ripped off. EZA doesn't homage to that at the end of that movie. I mean, you know, it's also just really like clever tongue and cheek. You know, instead of him driving her car or her driving him, they get on the lawnmower. And that's like that's like the symbol of the movie. And it's, it's, that's probably like one of the smarter things to happen in this movie in terms of like making a film. The drive off, I thought that person left. Oh, no, they're there. They're back. Has been ripped off. I mean, even like reality bites. They had Ethan Hawke. She thinks he got in the

cab and there is standing. She's going to get the cab and there's Ethan Hawke standing in front the house. That one's been ripped off too. It's in every rom-com now, basically. I think this whole movie's rewatchable. But what is your most rewatchable scene out of all those choices? I think it's probably the you shit on my house in the arcade just because it's like such a culminating moment and it doesn't actually involve the dog shit so that part is great. But number two is definitely the dance scene

and Patrick Dempsey says people still ask him about that dance all the time which I think is weird. I don't need to see Patrick Dempsey do that but okay. What do you think? It's a lot of good options. It's tough. Wow. Have you ever been stumped this hard before, Bill?

most rewatchable scene, you're really just struggling. I think it's you shit of my house. I really enjoy it. I like that Kenneth, he really goes for it after Ronald walks away and he does the kind of look away De Niro moment. It's like, I'm just going to chew up the scenery here. It's so 80s with the video games and like people just like standing around. It's great.

Plus like I can't under, I can't overstate. He was Malachi and Children in the Corn, which is one of the seminal ladies movies where he's like this little cult leader with this red hair. Anyway. He was also in Sweet Home Alabama. He has a pretty small role, but they had reunited in that movie coincidentally. All right. We'll take a break and then we'll do what's age the best.

Okay. What's age the best? Young Patrick Dempsey. Fun to just see him as a young guy considering he became, I mean, is it fair to say he became an A-lister during Gray's Anatomy? I feel like he did. Absolutely. Yeah, okay.

Of course, yeah. That whole cast, I mean, for the first like seven to ten years, mega famous, absolutely A-list. And he's so rich now. Yeah, oh, seriously. When you go back and you go through the 80s movies, there's some funny ones to see the people at an actual young stage of their career. Like, risky businesses like that, too.

Cruz is young in that movie. It's like 19. I know. Yeah. Or like the outsiders, like Rob Lowe as like a 15-year-old, but this is definitely one of them. Cindy's car, the Volkswagen cabriolet convertible, which could by law, I don't know if Reagan passed this, I think, in 84, could only be driven by just super hot girls in high school and college. That was it. They were only sold.

You had to just be either hot or smoking hot. The funniest thing ever was my roommate chip in college when we could all drive when we could have colleges. cars on campus sophomore year. And Chip showed up with like an 87 Volkswagen cabarettebrale convertible. And we made fun of them the whole year. What did your sister get her car back? It was like the only guy in the East Coast who had the car. I think Volkswagen are still thought of as a girl cars, like Jeddhas and Passats.

Like they're cute little, they're cute cars. I think they're still considered for women. The car is amazing. I wouldn't call them safe. you look at it, it's basically like, now they have, if they built them, they would, they just wouldn't build them that way, which is one of the reasons I think they're so

cool looking. Yeah. And people really did sit on the back of those. Like, because there's that scene when they watch it. Like, there was no safety in the 80s. Like, nobody used seatbelts. You know, there was a million things going wrong, but people would, like, you would cram like seven people in that car and just

drive. Yeah, I'm not really a car person. Like, I don't care that much. And I was like, wow, that car is incredible. I want that car. It's really so nice. It's a great one. 1980s Arizona. Yeah. As a TV movie locale, like kind of underrated.

I was like, wow, they made L.A. look really good for this. And I was like, wow, it's actually shot in Tucson. They said it. They have Tucson high. You can see the sign at one point. They have a couple of Arizona references, some cactuses. Totally. You know, it could have gone the Breaking Bad route of New Mexico where you're like, wow, this

looks like a hellscape, but they made it look awesome. And also, like, they really emphasize the palm trees, the Spanish tile. I was like, this is exactly what people are still looking for it to this day. Great. The one-story houses. Yeah. You mentioned the EZA thing. I think that's an important one stage the best.

Because I think EZA is probably one of the, we did it already in the Wii watchable as you did it with Amanda. I don't know, one of the two or three best teen movies of the last 20 years. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it deliberately pays homage in, like, a real aggressive, She says, what does she say? Like, I wish my life was more like an 80s teen romance. And then they just basically steal the last scene.

I think that's an important part for this thing. Yeah, the little brother, Chuckie. Seth Green? Seth Green. The Seth Green becoming Scott Evil and becoming, you know, and the whole, but like seeing early, early prototype Seth Green is great. I mean, Seth Green is in Can Hardly Wait, so he means a lot to me. Who could be the night of cards, chips, dips, and dorks?

Or what about something's rotten in suburbia? I like that he's just sneaking in his brother's car. That was another 80s thing where you would have the younger, the precocious younger brother who just was just a complete monkey wrench constantly. And I don't know, I missed that. No punishment at all for his little brother, just following him around or like sneaking out. Like he can literally do whatever.

He's like a, he's like Tinkerbell in this movie or something. It's really weird. His little brother lives in that car. He's in the back of that car, the entire movie. Very strange. So, Craig, you should have joined us for this pod. Craig didn't really like the movie, but now he's getting into it. You could have had me for $49.95 was hilarious when that Ronnie hits rock bottom.

But that whole scene's funny. Cindy's excuses when Ronnie keeps calling is hilarious. She's in Europe. She's getting whatever. So Rico Suave is. one of the guys in this movie. Yeah. That was a huge song. I don't know.

Maybe 1990. He played Ricky, kind of the number three jock in this movie. And they had a Campi Me Love reunion, like, I don't know, for the, I guess the 25th anniversary. And he said, he told the crowd it was the most popular thing he's ever done, even more popular than Rico Suave. Wow. Rico Suave. That's a good song. It really is.

Back to Cindy Mancini's moral compass. Come on, you guys. The lady never talks. And Cindy says, yeah, next time I see one, I'll remember that. She's great cutout of a friend. Seriously, she's got some other good ones too, which I would like to talk about when we move forward to best quote. The farting guy, the farting makes me laugh.

I'm sorry. I'm juvenile. The Big John's fart thing where they're positioning him to just fart out the window and fart cars. I don't know. Gets me. Gets my funny bone. Whole Simmons family enjoys it. I'm just going to have a feeling that's one of the reasons why your son probably really likes this movie. It's a good gag. I like that character in general. He's like a nice guy. He's one of those guys. He kind of bounced around the 80s and 90s and 90s. Major League, yeah. Can you remember his 902 and O cameo?

Oh my God. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. It was great. What else here for? What stage is the best? Cindy's fashion. She wears some great outfits that are very, I could just see them being really popular now. Like the long skirts with the short boots, a lot of her crop tops and her jeans. I even think the jacket at the very beginning with the like bikini top is like, that's all back in. Like her fashion is really good. And then his first outfit, he's wearing a NASA t-shirt and Adita sneakers that like probably could be sold for, you know, each item like $100 on Sunset Boulevard and Silver Lake. Like that's like definitely a cool guy outfit now, and all of that stuff is just really back in. The price of $1,000, that holds up.

As we talked about at the beginning, I just feel like that's a price that works. A lot of people are saying yes for $1,000 in high school. Yeah, I agree. And also, maybe the single trope that's aged the best is the taking off of the glasses for the fast makeover. I mean, that's been ripped off so many time. So I just was like, oh, okay. Yeah, that's still tracks for me. And also, I mentioned this, but the Arizona Spanish tile is like just so funny. It's, you know, it's an architectural digest every month. Like, it's so beloved. And it's just funny that it's like part of the terrain there. So that really stood out. My beloved daughter, Zoe Simmons, made the same point that you did about the fashion. Yeah. That a lot of Cindy's clothes would play pretty decently right now.

Absolutely. And she looks great. She looks fantastic in the movie. Classy gal. Some Quicky Awards. The Kid Cuddy Pursuit Happiness Award for Best Needle Drop. Opening credits. It starts with the Beatles song.

I mean, that's just absolutely wild. Take that 0.5 stars Roger Ebert. This movie starts with the Beatles. I'm sure Roger judged the Beatles for that. He was like, oh, this takes the down and notch in my book. The Dracula the Musical Award for Best Imitation of Real Art. in a word we don't get to give out every pod. But whatever fake TV show that was,

where they were doing the African Daneater ritual, whatever was called, it's pretty realistic show. Like, that's the kind of show that would have been on some weird channel in 1987 where you're flipping channel. I was like, what the fuck is this? I thought they put some thought into that one. I cannot believe you're not giving it to Cindy's poetry. That is so rude.

I mean, Cindy is so offended. They weren't his best imitation of real art. It would have been the worst imitation. If we have a Cindy Bancini Worst Poetry Award. Oh, this is, so the Big Kuhna Burger Award for Best Use of Food and Drink. Sometimes we kind of shoehorn this in

or we force it. The pizza that Ronnie is eating where he invites, she's like, go and invite the guys over. And, you know, that'll be a way to win them over. And they come over and they take every slice. The pizza looks great. My son comments on it every time.

Like, wow. Thin crust, nice and crispy. that one slice of pepperoni looks good. But I have a different thought on this one, which is Scoop's Tuxedo of Tucson. It looks amazing. I'd love to try that ice cream. And the milkshake that Cindy pours on her boyfriend's head,

I was like, wow, I can't believe she's wasting a milkshake. That looks really good. So I'm lusting after that one. I feel that way every time I see a milkshake. I watched Pulp Fiction last night. Oh. And the $5 a milkshake somehow could win the Big Cahooner Burger Award, even though the Bikuna Burger is in Pulp Fiction.

I don't know, that'll be whenever we do the Pulp Fiction Pod, that'll be a good battle. The Den of Thieves Benihano Award for scene stealing location obviously goes to the airport graveyard. Holy shit. Yeah. It's the Pima County Air Museum. I'd love to go. Great Shock Order Award, most cinematic shot.

You said you didn't know what it was. It's the last frame in the movie. Oh, okay. Yeah. The sunset? Yeah, it's beautiful. iconic. By the way, it's the middle of the day.

when she is going to leave with their friends and we immediately fast forward to the sunset. Not sure how that happened. The Butch's Girlfriend Award for the Weeklake of the film. I want it more from Ronald's parents. Yeah, I agree. Thought the dad could have been funnier. They just kind of, all the moms on every movie and TV show

in the 80s and early 90s, they just kind of were throwaway characters. None of them had a personality. Yeah. It's pretty tough. I will say, though, Dennis Dugan is obviously incredibly important. you know, director of so many

Adam Sandler movies, including our favorite, your family and me. Just go with it. Oh my God. What are we doing? Maybe that'll be our 250th movie.

Just go with it. So many inexplicable and wonderful things about that movie. Jennifer, Inneson, the smoking hot dental hygienist

who just lives by herself. Nicole Kidman and Dave Matthew is married? That movie's incredible. I love that movie. What's age the worst? man there's some there's some tough ones here the Amanda Peterson was 15 when they made this movie and Patrick Dempsey was 20 now they only like have one kiss at the end but I had no idea she was only 15

and she turned 16 like when it came out but I didn't realize she was that young yeah I know did you know that no I didn't also I thought he was younger he looks younger than 20 in my opinion yeah I'll tell you who loved that anecdote was Ben Simmons my son because he turns 15 in November. It made him love a man to Peterson even more. Bobby's acting, Bobby, the college guy who comes back, one of the worst three-minute acting things, I think, in an 80s movie. Cindy, Stadda, he's just couldn't be worse. He has the kind of blonde mullet going. It's like William Zabka called in sick at the last second and they had to like grab somebody. Pretty rough. Counterpoint, in the beginning when he's on TV and he's doing the interview with the local news.

about playing at Iowa. He seems so uninterested and so disengaged. It's just like, what the fuck am I doing here? And I would say that's a great, accurate representation of many 19-year-old quarterbacks. Right. Fair. Fair. I was like, okay.

I got it. I wrote this in what's age the worst, even though we talked about it. In 2003, Camp Omie Love was remade as Love Don't Cost of Things starring Nick Cannon and Christina Million. Fuck this. That was my Woods Age the Worst. If you're going to remake it, do a better job. Yeah.

That movie's not good. Also, don't change the name. Like, remake it and keep the name and find other ways to make it your own. Maybe they couldn't get the rights to it again or something. That's bullshit. Yeah. Morewood's age is aware. Cindy's mom's date hitting on Cindy?

Yeah. I think that really informs the Cindy character. While it's aged poorly, I actually think it's essential to understanding Cindy and her mom. Told me a lot. Ronald's prediction to Cindy that people will be living on the moon when he's his dad's age. Kind of a whiff. Although maybe Jeff Bezos loves this movie and that's one of the reasons of the space stuff. Ben Simmons pointed this out.

The teacher in the woman's restroom when Ronnie thinks he's talking to Cindy and the teacher comes out of the toilet and just like gets bad at him and pulls him out. Doesn't wash your hands. Yeah, it doesn't wash your hands. Gross. And then what else? What do you have for what stage is worse? I know you have a couple. Repeated use of the R word.

That was like pretty glaring to me. Yeah, that's 80s though. I mean, they didn't know any better. I understand. Still has aged poorly. Also, they said that someone should be in special ed. I think they were insulting Ronnie by saying it seems like he should be in special ed. So those are pretty tough.

While the African cultural hour did seem like a real PBS show, I think the African cultural hour and African Anteater Ritual has also just the naming and sort of stereotyping of that is not great either. And so, you know, that also really stood out to me. And then the women's locker room scene. It's very revenge of the nerds when they're like showing the women talking to each other of like this is what a middle-aged man wishes a high school grade. girls locker room is like with them wearing like just like hanging out in their underwear just like chatting

it up and it's like no i that's definitely not what it's like inside a girls high school locker room so that was like just that's a great call it was ridiculous great job by you on that one thank you ron bergurdy flew to word for best time for a pee break right after they throw shit on kenneth's house there's about three minutes there where you can kind of run off and then it heats up again That's the only time the movie slows down, I feel like. I would say the one scene for me, I was just like, this is completely pointless. Let's get rid of it is when Ronnie Miller is talking about how he has, he's like yelling at the dinner table, but how he hasn't gotten his report card yet. And he's like, that's that section.

Yeah. That's just pointless. Cut it out. Let's get down to 90 minutes. It's about 100. I think we could have gotten it down to 90. Was there a better title for this movie? God no.

Best quote is either you shit on my house or who's the dick with ears. It's the answer. obviously you shit on my house. Obviously. Who's the dick with ears? It's a great runner up. Also some really good barbs from Cindy, which you mentioned.

But one of my favorites was I've seen zombies with more individuality. That was a good one. The Courtney Gaines, the redheaded guy, he said the studio wanted to take you shit on my house out of the movie because they thought it was too edgy

for a teenager movie and the producers fought to keep it in. And then Courtney Gaines said, quote, It's obviously gone on to be a quotable line in the lexicon of teen cinema. Thanks, Courtney. Obviously. A book about medals award for belatedly best quote.

So Kenneth says, Jocks became, he taught, they're talking about why aren't they still friends like they were when they're kids. And he says to Kenneth, or he says to Ronald, Jocks become Jocks, cheerleaders became cheerleaders, we became us. I like us. That's a really good one. Good summation. Yeah. I also like the he went from totally geek to totally chic because then they call back later and do the total she, totally geek. Skipping the hottest take a word because- Wait, I got to share one.

Oh, go. I already did mine. You go. I think it's really important and really makes the movie that her college boyfriend comes back and at that pivotal party scene calls her a prostitute. If that's not in the movie, this movie doesn't work. Someone had to say it and I'm glad it was said. And so I appreciate Billy. I think that's his name. And we owe him a service for making this movie structurally sound. Your hottest takes, I think that's your second one since you've added the word. Have you just been lights out.

You're going to win the hottest take MVP at the end of the year. Just great hottest takes by you. Casting what ifs, I could find none. There were none on the internet. None. The Ruffalo Hannah Rubeneck Partridge overacting Award. They knew and they let it happen. Don't you call me lady.

I come in here. I give these things to you. Give it all you got! Give it all you got! I treated you like a son. You fucking stand me in the heart. Fuck you. Mentioned earlier, but Courtney Gaines as Kenneth,

right after you this shit in my house, the last like three seconds where he kind of looks away and does this sad face thing, I would have done another cut. He was waiting for his slow clap. He wanted to say. someone to applaud him. I think it's Iris,

the friend that he uses the poem on. Her, like, overacting as a slut was just a tad too far for me. But maybe it's because she's too old for that role or something. I don't know. We should have had that in the Woods Age the worst. That was like this prototype character they would have in these movies. Like the basically the mega slut. We're like, watch out for her.

Uh-oh, Iris Hazard decides. He was like, these people, did they exist in real life? because they didn't exist in any of my high school experiences. I know. Watch out for Iris. Also, Iris was like 35. Yeah, much too old for that role. Especially compared to the 15 years of Amanda Peterson.

The Ked, we don't normally get to give this award out that much. It's conditional. But the Teddy KGB Award for the actor doing his own thing clearly goes to Seth Green. Clearly. He just took the Chucky character. He's like, I'm going to run with this, guys. Hold on, I have some more ideas. And then best that guy, Courtney Gaines, a.k.a. Malachi, aka Kenneth.

Or, I think the kind of hipster choice here, court McCown. Mm. Who was the guy who was going to kick Kenneth's ass at the end of the movie, and then they have the handshake and the slow clap. That guy, football guy number two, who has the wine, who's pretending he's a wine connoisseur. also one of the basketball players is a Teen Wolf. So big run for him. Yeah, he's one of Teen Wolf's teammates. I was going with Big John, who I really loved in Major League when I was a kid.

I just feel like he popped up all over the place. He's a real 90s legend for me. Yeah, Big John's up there too. That's a good one. I don't even know what his name is. So maybe he's the winner because I don't even know what Big John's name is. It's Eric Bruce Goder. Oh, there you go.

Dionne Waiter is a word. We have Iris, Big John. Cindy's mom or Seth Green? It's clearly Seth Green. I think it's Cindy's mom. I just think she does a lot. Make the case. I think she,

I think that like she's important to the framing of Ronald, first of all, is like, Ronald, the guy who calls and she's like, did I forget to pay you when he comes to the door? Her view of Ronald

is almost more persuasive than the other kids. And the sketchy boyfriend is also important to understanding. Also, had her mom not bought the white sway, outfit, we wouldn't have this movie. I just think we really aren't giving her enough credit.

She did, she did a lot with a little. Yeah, they had a good relationship. I liked, even though it wasn't 40 minutes of it, but you could tell they got it. That's, that's solid. All right, I'm going with Seth Green. Recasting couch. I mean, the two, Cindy's two friends, first of all, they should have been her age. I would have maybe made that controversial decision of casting teenagers in a teenage movie. You also had a lot of of great actresses back then. We could have Julie Roberts as one of the friends. This was right in her satisfaction early, like when she was like tall, big baby cheeks. Jennifer Conley, we could have had her. We could have had Christina Applegate.

Winona Ryder was available. Wow. These are great ones, Bill. There were some really good late 80s young actresses. We could have thrown into the. Shannon Doherty was available. Yeah. So, yeah. What about, um, Alyssa Milano? Was she too young? Might have been a tiny bit too young. I feel like she looks like Iris, the slutty one to me.

Like I just feel like I could see her in that role. Yeah. Halfass Center research, we mentioned in Tucson High School. Did you know the choreography? The choreography was by Paul Abdul. I learned it when I was doing my half-ass research. Yeah. There was a strike during this movie,

and you could see striking crew members picketing the film during the cheerleader scenes. Your guy Patrick Dempsey, car collector. Yeah. It's part of his whole schick. Used all of his salary from this film to buy his first car,

which was a 1963 Porsche 356 convertible. He still talks about that a lot. It's like clearly really mean. I think the movie was meaningful to him as a means to buy a car. Like that's the impression I get from how he talks about that car.

And to end up with a 48-year-old wife. Yeah, and that too. You mentioned the airplane graveyard It's located just outside of Davis-Montana Air Force Base in Tucson. You know the answer to this, but Patrick Dempsey and Seth Green did reunite. Of course, Kenard. I mean, an episode of Grace, right? A two-episode arc of Grace Anatomy.

They were brought back together. One of the girls in this movie, Darcy DeMoss, was eight years older than Amanda Peterson. She was 23 when they made this. the oh and then the producer the he had it he sold it to TriStar

and they put it in turn around and then somehow it landed in the hands of the Apollo Pictures founder who then just decided to make the movie and then they made it and they sold it to Disney

Michael Eisner Jeffrey Katzenberg for $6 million incredible and then the movie We made 16. Everyone made money. All winners. I think it was Disney's second ever licensed movie. Until that point, they'd only ever made them in the studio.

Any other half-ass stuff you found? Yeah. Chuck Lorry of two and a half men fame and like a million other TV shows, one of the richest people in Hollywood. He wrote a song for this movie. I think it plays it in the car. It's in the car. It's like some like random song. Chuck. Yeah. And then the school in Tucson, as you mentioned, real school, they paid the school back by building them a football field and a stage, which they also used in the movie.

Seems like a bad deal. If I'm the school, I'm like, no, just we'll take the cash. We'll decide how to spend it ourselves. Football fields are expensive, though. I don't know. That's a pretty good deal. Okay. Well, then I guess I'm wrong.

But anyway. No, I'm just saying that those fields are not cheap. Okay. Especially if you're doing grass and might have been fair. In a space where you're not supposed to really have grass because it's a desert, sure. Yeah, they probably put turf in there. Apex Mountain. Dempsey, no. Peterson, sadly, yes.

Yeah, definitely. Lawnmowers? Oh, interesting. Better use of a lawnmower in a movie that you can remember? I say no. Lawn mower is like a featured character. Yeah, the only other one that comes to mind is on the episode of Madman where someone gets their foot run over at the party.

Forget over that. That's a good call. High school movies, I'm going to say no as much as I like this. But popularity, striving for popularity movies, it might be Apex Mountain. It's been ripped off for 35 years since. You can make the case. Yeah. I just feel like in terms of like, I just feel like this is like an old NBA player who was really important.

But don't get too carried away. Yeah. So maybe mean girls. Yeah. Me girls? Yeah, something like that. Courtney Gaines. I'm going to say yes.

Wow. Tucson, Arizona. What are some of the other candidates for this? I mean, for what else Tucson could have been their apex? I mean, their call-of-name. Yeah, I don't know. Well, I just associate with Steven Spielberg. He's from Tucson, isn't he?

Or is he from Phoenix? Maybe Steven Spielberg is. The Volkswagen Cabriolet, unquestionably, yes. I mean, I've never actually wanted a car based on a movie before, and now I do. It's the huge winner. Arizona movies? So you got raising Arizona right around here too? Arizona's make a little run.

Yeah. I think it's this. It makes Arizona look great. Yeah, I think it is too. How about borderline prostitution rom-coms? I think it's in its class of its own because as I told you, I was trying to think of other ones where there's like a monetary exchange. So 10 things I hate about you, they pay Heath Ledger, but they're not paying any of the women.

risky business and pretty women's actual prostitute, so it's not borderline. They're disqualified. Yeah. So if we're going borderline prostitution, I think this might be one of one. I agree. Any other Apex Mountains? No. Covered well.

Best race horse name. It's got to be Slow Clap. That would be a great horse name. Here comes Slow Clap. That's a good one. What about Tuxedo of Tucson, the ice cream shop as a... I like it. Yeah.

That's a good one. Yeah. Also, I feel like there's a lot of rich people in Arizona, so they'd be, like, excited to pay, you know, to acknowledge that through the name of their horse. Picking Nits. Oh, man. The suede outfit's $1,000. That's my wife and daughter were outraged that it would be that much. They weren't sure it would cost $1,000 now.

I think it's close. I mean, leather's really expensive. Depends on what kind of material it is. Like, I don't know. It's expensive. I disagree. I think that actually, that checks out to me. $1,000?

So that's, like, probably what? $3,500 now? Yeah. Leather and suede are, like, really premium leather and suede are expensive. So her divorce mom has a $3,500 jacket in the closet? I was just going to ask, how do they afford that to begin with? I don't know, but that's a different question. I mean, that's a different knit to pick.

Ben Simmons's big nit pick. Okay. When Ronnie and Cindy go to school together as a fake couple for the first day, and she's like, I've got to fix your outfit, and she rips the sleeves off. He's like, there's no fucking way. sleeves will rip off that easily. He's just like, I completely agree.

He just can't believe that they did it that way. I completely agree. Yeah. Question for you. Yeah. Was American bandstand still relevant in 1987? Barely. I think if you were a nerd who didn't,

wasn't really in touch with the culture, you might have thought so. Okay. The bigger question is, how could you have turned on the in-eater ritual channel and thought that was American bandstand? Like, nobody would be that sheltered. We mentioned Ronnie would just have no idea this entire time.

Cindy didn't like him is a little far-fetched. Yeah. It's ridiculous. And also that he didn't just fall in love with her. That's even more ridiculous, actually, that he was willing to just move on from her because, like, that he changed or whatever. Yeah.

I just feel like, who's better than Cindy Mancini? No, nobody, especially in that school. You mentioned the little kid being just allowed to leave his house at his discretion for long periods of time. He was like 10. That was weird. My son pointed this one out too. Why didn't more people care at the party that Bobby was back?

This huge hero in the school playing QB at Iowa. And now he's shown up at a high school party. It should have been like the C should have parted Bobby's back. They barely cared. Because it's lame for a college guy to go to a high school party. It's just like... It's a star of the town, though. I don't know.

It's a closed circle. I feel like seniors want to preserve their status as being the most important. You think there was resentment of it, okay. Yeah. Why didn't Ronnie, so Cindy throws him under the bus, says she got paid. Why didn't Ronnie try to counterattack with the she's lying? That never happened and at least tried to weasley. It's basically he could turn that into my word against your word situation and pretend he never did it.

Or call her, you know, use Bobby's line, be like, like, well, you accepted. What do you, what's wrong with me? Well, he just kind of was like, oh, we're having some issues and just slunked out of there. I don't know. I'm going to go the attack. This is my big one. Well, do you have one before? I'll give you my big one, but you, do you have any left? Why is he Mancini, not Mancini? Is there no Italians involved in making this movie at all? Is she Italian? I don't know, but that's an Italian name, Mancini, Mancini? Like, I don't know. I just was, I was, I was really, distracted by that the whole time. And she's blonde. Yeah. And she didn't look very

time. My big one is nobody's worried about college in this movie. I was going to mention one. There's no SATs. There's no like where you going next year. I'm going to the community college. Oh, well, when I go to college in the South next year, it's just never mentioned. I know. I had the same thought too. That's super weird. That's a crucial part of high school movies. Any more nitpics? No, we can move on. sequel prequel prestige TV all black cast documentary or untouchable I am going to go sequel with Patrick Dempsey as the parent oh wow

it's a great one thank you yeah he's now he's now Ronald Miller he's just an adult he lives in Arizona yeah exactly or he could live wherever but yeah maybe he's come back to Arizona and you know find find him a wife and a kid who I think the other twist of it would be his daughter is the one who's looking to get more popular instead of his son. I have it as a prestige TV eight episodes. Of course you do.

I think we get eight episodes out of it. You definitely flip it. So it's the girl this time who wants to be popular or not the boy. And I think you make it much darker, much darker. Okay. So like a euphoria type of thing? Yeah, that works with people like my daughter. Okay.

It goes like there's a thousand dollars for a month. month, but something goes horribly wrong. And it's like, Sam Levinson's not writing it, but he's an EP. He's an EP, yeah. Yeah, he's EP. He was involved in the pilot, but they'd write it. And I think it goes way darker. There might even be a murder after the second episode. What about the money is used to buy drugs, not a replacement outfit? I was thinking somebody finds out about the secret and they get killed. Oh, okay. One person, Ronald is so desperate to stay popular or female Ronald, whoever the person

who paid is, murders the friend who found out and now has to cover that up. Literally, well, is now murdering people to stay popular. Okay, if that's the direction we're going, I'd like to nominate Sarah Michelle Geller as the mother for this so she can bring her energy from I know what you did last summer, you know, and like really help push it forward. So, all right, so we got Dempsey and Sarah Michelle Geller as the parents. You're just homageing left and right. Yeah, it's great.

Malachi is a teacher at the school. We're in Arizona again. Sounds great. This is great. Good workshop. Is this movie better with Wayne Jenkins, Danny Treo, Catherine Hahn, Steve Bouchemy, Sam Jackson, J.T. Walsh, or Philip Baker Hall. It's a hard yes to Philip Baker Hall.

There certainly was a role for him in the school, principal, teacher, whatever. I had him as Ronnie's dad. Oh yeah, sure, sure. Just kind of suspicious, gruff, business-like, kind of horrified that these are his two sons. Not a good work. Just one Oscar who gets it. Probably nobody.

Definitely nobody. But if we had to give one, probably Dempsey. Pretty good acting in this. Yeah, he is good. Unanswerable questions. How the hell did they get a Beatles song for this movie? Well, I'm so glad you asked because I was going to say, if we're doing, that keep getting them checks award,

it goes to Michael Jackson, who was like, sure. I'll take $110,000. Why not? Because he owned the catalog at that point. He owned it. Yeah. And they claim that he had to screen the movie to sign off on it, but I don't believe it. He probably was just like, yeah, sure, give me the money.

Did this movie invent the slow clap? I floated this out earlier. That's a great. The answer is no. From all I can tell, and I've done research on this, and we might have even talked about this in the past, this movie called Brew Baker, Brew Brewerker. Brew Baker with Robert Redford where he's in charge of a prison. They don't realize he's the new person in charge of the prison.

He goes in as a prisoner to find out about conditions. It ends up, whole thing unravels. I won't spoil it because it's a really good movie in case somebody wants to watch it. But at the end, the prisoners do the slow clap. And I think that's the first one. That was like 1980. Okay. I'm going to watch that movie.

Maybe we should do a slow clap, Hall of Fame on something. Slow cap February? Craig. Craig, tell the sponsor, slow clap February is happening. Oh, this is good. The Andy and Red Zawantene Award for what happened the next day. Love that one. Which leads to how long do Ronnie and Cindy date?

Until they go to college, so through the end of the summer. That's what I had to. It's three to four months. Unfortunately, nobody's going to college in this movie because they didn't have a college counselor. They didn't take the SATs. They have nowhere to go. Yeah, they're stuck in Tucson forever riding lawnmowers. I got some questions.

Yeah. Would Ronald be disappointed with where space exploration is in the last 35 years? I think you would. Is he disappointed that we haven't really advanced very far since the Cold War ended? I just wondering where his head would be at on that topic. Is Ronald an astronaut now? You might be. Is this word for NASA?

What does he do? He's, yeah, and he's wearing that NASA t-shirt. He's really into them. I mean, a lot of questions. Unfortunately, the answer is he doesn't work for NASA because he never went to college because nobody goes to college this movie. What piece of memorabilia would you want from this movie?

I mean, some incredible choices. You could have the telescope, you could have the suede outfit with or without the wine stain. I'm going with the 86 Volkswagen cabrily. It's her car. Absolutely. There's no better option. Yeah, that's a cool one.

Coach Finstock Award for Best Life Lesson. A lot of options for this one. A lot of a chronos of truth. I have multiple answers. All right. Let's hear. Never sell your friends out. Okay.

Don't borrow your mom's best piece of clothing without telling her for any reason. If my daughter did that to my wife, I honestly think it would be irreparable. Because she steals clothes for my wife constantly, but there's some lines you don't cross. And I don't know if they would come back. Yeah. And you definitely don't put water on the suede when you've stained it. You just immediately find a dry cleaner. Don't put water on suede.

Right. Stay yourself. Don't change to please people. Yeah, it's going off of one of the quotes. It's hard enough being yourself, so just be you. Yeah. Those are three good ones. Yeah, sure.

Who wins the movie? I think it's Dempsey. At every category, I was like, there is a Patrick Dempsey, Ronald Miller, answer for this question. You could shoehorn him into every single one. And he basically rode this movie into a revival, you know, in the early 2000. There was a weird nostalgia revival. Yeah. Like this change, I mean, this literally, I mean, it also changed his life by allowing him to buy the Porsche that he talks about at every interview opportunity.

So it's just a huge win for Patrick Dempsey all around. Coming out of the theater, it was Amanda Peterson. But I think 35 years later, clearly Dempsey, like this. impelled him in a whole bunch of different ways. Totally. It's a shame that she didn't win it, though, because I do feel like, you know, you never does. She was great.

And there's an alternate universe where, you know, she just is cranking out great movies and has a great career. So it's too bad. It really is. I also think that Seth Green is a winner that this movie didn't derail his career. His role is so inexplicable and he's so weird in it. But I'm just happy for him. All right.

before we go, we're going to bring producer Craig in, who was minus like seven when this movie came out. I think more. That's exactly right. Give us your thoughts. Was it 1987? Here's the theory I'm kind of working on. I think the 80s had the better ideas

for all of these movies, but they just had shoddy execution. And nowadays, we have the skills to make a great movie, but all the creativity is gone. The premise of this movie is great. But like, you know, the execution's kind of shoddy. If a man to The Diersson's not a good actor. This movie, like, is horrible. I think she's carrying this entire

movie if she's not believable. But yeah, I totally, I mean, I think the premise of this movie's great. This might be the first, like, nerd devising a plan to get popular movie, right? It might be. I think you're right. It's almost like these 80s movies were like football in the 80s with Bill Walsh, where you watch the games and the players, the linemen are much smaller and the players aren't as fast. But the concepts are really cool. And now we just, just have, now we have like six, five wide receivers, and it's just way easier to play football. Yeah, like, I think EZA is honestly the spiritual remake of this movie. It's essentially just the roles reverse. She's accepting money and, like, sacrificing her reputation to be cool. And it really

worked. You could have thrown Dempsey in that movie as the dad. I know Stanley Tootie's great, but that could have, he could have been the dad and his daughter is Olive. I, I accidentally skipped a category where we did double feature choice. Hmm. And I've, it would be great. EasyA is a really good one. The other one I had was Secret Admireer Because I think Secret Admire is another one We're like phenomenal premise for a movie Execution's a little spotty

But same kind of thing Guy not realizing somebody who's in love with him Guy pining for the hottest girl in school And there's some definite parallels I think Secret Admire is really good But it's also super duper flawed Like this movie is And when you watch it you're like

Wow this is an amazing premise Like they have like nine characters They're weaving in and out, but it has all the 80s flaws of all these movies. Also, I'm not, I don't think Cindy, do you think Cindy takes Dempsey back? He slept, Ronald slept with like three girls in like three weeks. Yeah. He slept with her two best friends and Iris in like a three weeks span. And then she's back in, I don't know, I don't think she's accepting it back after that.

Well, that was her muse for her poetry. Short-lived, but I think, I think that, you know, they run into problems. They start peeling the layers back. can just escape by on some, you know, new relationship vibes for a couple months. And then they go to college. Yeah. And she probably ends up with somebody way better. Or continues the life of just choice, bad choices in men when Cindy goes to college. She goes to the U of A, joins a sorority. Right. Maybe that's why they didn't mention college, because everyone in this, in this movie just goes to, like, Arizona State. And there's no other else to go. All right. That's it for Camp I'm Love,

Produced by Craig Horlbeck, Juliet. It was a pleasure, as always, to do a podcast with you. Good to see you. Pleasure is mine. Thanks, Bill.